Study examines impact of coffee on IVF outcomes

Study examines impact of coffee on IVF outcomes

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Researchers in a 2019 study found no difference in live birth rates in women who drank varying amounts of coffee and those who didn’t.

People love coffee! Worldwide, about 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed EVERY DAY.

The research on coffee consumption and IVF has mostly shown no impact on IVF outcomes:

  • Al-Saleh et al. (2010) looked at 619 women undergoing IVF who consumed on average 455 mg of caffeine/day. There was no difference in pregnancy rates, but a reduced number of eggs collected in IVF.
  • Choi et al. (2011) looked at over 4700 IVF cycles and found no association with low/moderate/high caffeine consumption and live birth rates, number of oocytes collected, fertilization rate, or implantation rate.
  • Machtinger et al. (2017) in their prospective study looked at 340 IVF cycles and found no association with coffee intake and IVF outcomes.
  • Ricci et al. (2018) in their prospective study looked at about 300 IVF cycles and found no association with moderate caffeine intake and IVF outcomes.
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🔗 Original studies are referenced in this post or within the linked Remembryo posts.

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Denmark is the 4th most coffee-consuming country in the world, with an average of 3-4 cups of coffee a day. Here, women who are trying to conceive, or who are pregnant, drink coffee. So what better place to study IVF and coffee consumption than Denmark!

Lyngsø et al. (2019), in their single center, retrospective study, looked at 1708 women who had performed IUI cycles, IVF-ICSI cycles, and FET cycles between 2010 and 2015. This summary will just focus on the IVF-ICSI and FET cycles.

They collected their data by questionnaires and treatment charts from the Fertility Clinic at Aarhus University Hospital (AUH) in Denmark.

There were three groups: those who didn’t drink coffee, those who drank 1-5 cups/day and those that drank 6-10 cups a day.

The women who drank coffee tended to be older, had a lower BMI, smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, and had a male partner who also drank coffee. Because all of these factors can also influence pregnancy outcomes, they “adjusted” their statistics to control for each of these factors.

For the 2788 IVF-ICSI cycles:

  • 0 cups of coffee: 24.8% live birth
  • 1-5 cups of coffee: 24.0% live birth
  • 6-10 cups of coffee: 22.1% live birth (very few cycles in this category)
  • Both the unadjusted and adjusted relative risk (RR) were not significant, meaning that women who drank coffee were not more (or less) likely to have a live birth.
  • They had similar results with clinical pregnancies.

They also looked at women who were having an FET and found no differences in clinical pregnancies or live births.

This data shows that there is no association with consumption of coffee in women who were performing IVF-ICSI or an FET.

For women who are pregnant, the World Health Organization recommends below 300 mg, and the CDC below 200 mg a day. Some studies have shown negative effects with less than this, and James 2020 thinks that zero caffeine is best, although some experts have disputed this. As always, it’s best to speak with your doctor about this!

Reference

Lyngsø J, Kesmodel US, Bay B, Ingerslev HJ, Nybo Andersen AM, Ramlau-Hansen CH. Impact of female daily coffee consumption on successful fertility treatment: a Danish cohort study. Fertil Steril. 2019 Jul;112(1):120-129.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.03.014. Epub 2019 Apr 28. PMID: 31043232.

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About Embryoman

Embryoman (Sean Lauber) is a former embryologist and the founder of Remembryo, an IVF research and fertility education website. After working in an IVF lab in the US, he returned to Canada and now focuses on making fertility research more accessible. He holds a Master’s in Immunology and launched Remembryo in 2018 to help patients and professionals make sense of IVF research. Sean shares weekly study updates on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit regularly. He also answers questions on Reddit or in his private Facebook group.

 

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